American League breaks losing skid, beats National League in All-Star Game

NEW YORK — Jason Castro never got his moment, but the baseball world got its.

Castro had talked a lot in the 36 hours leading up to the All-Star Game about how much he’d love to catch Mariano Rivera. And while the Yankees closer stole the show and the MVP hardware with a perfect inning to help the American League to a 3-0 victory in his farewell Midsummer Classic, Castro didn’t get to catch him or anybody else.

He was left on the bench as the third catcher behind Minnesota’s Joe Mauer, who went the first six innings, and the Royals’ Salvador Perez, who played the final three. The only time he saw the field after introductions was an aborted few steps to go catch some warmup pitches only to be called back to the dugout for “God Bless America.”

It marks the second DNP in the last five All-Star Games for the Astros, who for the fourth straight year sent just one representative. Hunter Pence (2009) had been the most recent one not to play, and like Castro on Tuesday, that was his first career selection.

“I actually didn’t really know what the plan was going to be,” Castro said. “Toward the end there, I figured I was going to be just in case we went to extra innings — there were a few guys in that boat who didn’t get a chance to get in there.”

Indeed, the National League saved a catcher, too, in Brian McCann, and ex-Astros prospect Ben Zobrist was also left on the American League bench as a utility man available for emergencies. Castro handled the snub well.

“With so much at stake and what it means for the postseason implications, it’s understandable how the rosters have to be used during the game,” he said. “It was an awesome experience to be a part of this — my first All-Star Game — I really tried to take advantage and soak it all in. Being able to be in the dugout, to be able to watch Mariano’s last All-Star game was pretty special.”

Area players in the mix

Houston’s homegrown All-Stars did take the field. The Woodlands High School alumnus Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks played five innings as a reserve and notched the National League’s only extra-base hit — a double in the ninth inning. Elkins High School product Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals played four innings and went 0-for-2.

If you were looking for offense, the game was far from the most compelling of the game’s 84 incarnations. The first two runs scored on outs — a Jose Bautista sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and a J.J. Hardy fielder’s choice in the fifth — before Jason Kipnis doubled home a run off Craig Kimbrel in the eighth.

But the game was special for its showcasing of superstars and superstars-to-be who were born in the 1990s.

Even without Dodgers phenom Yasiel Puig, who finished second in the final vote to the disappointment of many, the game featured several players on track to be among the best players of the next decade. The 2012 Rookies of the Year Mike Trout and Bryce Harper were joined by 20-year-old Marlins upstart Jose Fernandez, who pitched a dazzling 1-2-3 seventh with two strikeouts, and 21-year-old Orioles third baseman Manny Machado, who made the play of the game, corralling a hot-shot grounder down the line and throwing across the diamond to rob Goldschmidt of a hit.

And the game got off to an adventurous start when Mets starter Matt Harvey — the first to start an All-Star Game in his home ballpark since Roger Clemens at Minute Maid Park in 2004 — gave up a first-pitch double to Trout and then hit crosstown rival Robinson Cano in the leg with a pitch. Cano was removed from the game but was deemed OK after X-rays were negative.

Defense on full display

But Harvey settled down, and eventually pitching became the story. And when the guys on the mound got in trouble, the fielders generally bailed them out with the losing side turning four double plays to keep things close.

Despite the lead, manager Jim Leyland didn’t take any chances of a comeback that would cost Rivera the chance to throw an inning by not having a bottom of the ninth. Following a bizarre and out-of-place Neil Diamond rendition of “Sweet Caroline,” the field cleared, and Rivera took to the mound alone to his trademark entrance music of “Enter Sandman.”

“It was amazing — it almost made me cry,” Rivera said of the latest of his many tributes. “I wasn’t expecting this. I just wanted to pitch. The rest was a plus. The rest was indescribable.”